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| Liz Maas |
War. War never changes. ...But there's more magic this time around.
02.02.11 - 7:07 PM
Like Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and Final Fantasy XIII-2, the full version of the Famitsu interview regarding Final Fantasy Type-0 wasn't released until several days later. Aside from the details from last week, producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Hajime Tabata talked more about the name change, story and battle.
While Final Fantasy Type-0 is the (new) English name for the game, the Japanese version actually uses the kanji for 'reishiki' (which still means type-zero) to give the game a 'war chronicle' feel. As you might have noticed, kanji is extremely rare in Final Fantasy titles. Kitase wanted to do something different this time, rather than go with the traditional Roman numeral scheme.
Kitase and Tabata had already mentioned that Type-0 would focus on the 'people' side of the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology. This has been a little more clarified in that mankind here was born of the blood of Etro, the goddess who will get more focus in Final Fantasy XIII-2.
The game involves four nations: Milites, Rubrum, Anaze and Kogai. Energy and power in the each nation is powered by their own crystal which is protected by their own magic academy, or peristerium. As we mentioned last week, the twelve main characters are students at one of these academies - in this case, Rubrum's. Milites, on the other hand, has become mechanized and utilizes guns, warships and mechs. With these combined with their latest invention a 'crystal jammer,' they've proceeded to invade Rubrum and try to destroy its crystal. Rubrum on the other hand still relies heavily on magic and summons. The peristerium will also be like a base of operations; from here players will take orders from the army and access the world map.
The twelve students (that's the Rubrum flag they're hoisting) of the academy, six male, six female, seem to have names such as Cinque, Seven, Eight, and Jack so far, some of which can be seen or heard in the trailer. Rem and Machina, the two characters separate from this twelve, are considered the game's main characters (yes, they're playable alongside the students), even if not from a historical standpoint.
While characters will gain levels through experience points just like any other RPG, the focus is on the customization of magic. This is unlike the many magic systems seen in Final Fantasy: Here, the magic is like weapons in that you can fire away as if you were using a gun. As well, if you have Fire (as an example), you can hold down the button to unleash Fira instead or even Firaga - this customizes the spell. The more you do this, the less time it'll take to cast the stronger spells, and you can also change their power.
Not surprisingly, the traditional Final Fantasy summons will make their return. You choose your summon of choice before going out to fight, but not during a battle. These summons aren't a one-time deal either: if Bahamut dies, you can summon another one in his place. You can also fully control the summon monster once you call him/her/it up, something which Tabata describes as 'very powerful' and a 'good feeling' to be able to control them - but you will only have the summon for a limited period of time. As the game progresses, you'll get a wider variety of summons to choose from.
Tabata and Kitase also talked more about the multiplayer in this version of the interview. They reiterated that played start put solo and help each other out from time to time, usually three minutes at a time (although this can increase later on). Tabata likened multiplayer mode to be like having support party members that you can call on if you're in need of help. They did promise a bonus for players helping each other, but like before nobody got into any details. So far, multiplayer has only been mentioned for ad-hoc, and there's been no mention of any other mode quite yet.
Finally, Tabata explained that they chose to put the game on two UMDs because otherwise, they would have had to cut out a lot of content, something the team wasn't prepared to do, as they wanted the game to match HD titles in terms of quality, and likened their cutscenes to movies.
Final Fantasy Type-0 is currently 60% complete and will be out in Japan this summer. You can check here for the premiere event trailer, or go to our gallery below to look at a handful of new screenshots.
